FLYING PUBLIC USED AS GUINEA PIGS

A press release from NATCA. Were you flying up the coast last Saturday?

DELAYS CAUSED AND FUEL WASTED TO FULFILL FAA SUPERVISOR'S TRAINING REQUIREMENTS

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Last Saturday at approximately 4:10 p.m. EDT an FAA Supervisor at Jacksonville Air Route Traffic Control Center ordered several air traffic controllers to issue new routes to four flights for the purpose of generating more traffic for a trainee undergoing a skills check – when a supervisor observes a trainee to see if he or she is ready to be certified to work that sector without direct supervision by a certified air traffic controller.

The new routings were issued to the four flights around Wilmington, N.C. and it required four carriers (a Delta Airlines B757, a Virgin Airways B747 and two Southwest Airlines B737s) to fly in excess of 100 miles further and took them from a routing that was clear of weather and forced them to fly through thunderstorms. When questioned by the Virgin Airlines pilot as to the reason for the reroute, the supervisor ordered the controller to advise the pilot that it was due to weather.

Said Jacksonville Center Facility Representative Dave Cook: “While these skills checks are a normal part of the life of a trainee, forcing the airlines to fly further goes against the very grain of the service that air traffic control provides. Forcing air carriers full of passengers to fly through hazardous weather is needlessly endangering people’s lives – and the FAA Supervisor doing so to meet his training requirements is reckless.” ###

So, to paraphrase, if you were on one of those flights, they pointed you AT THUNDERSTORMS and WASTED YOUR TIME because ONE GUY wanted to see something.

Heavy rain is dangerous. One day, a guy flew his Baron (a small twin-engine plane) through a line of showers, and promptly drowned one of his engines. As my old flight-instructor buddy used to say, "That second engine is only there to carry you to the scene of the accident." So he was losing altitude and had differential thrust in the worst possible wind conditions. All I could do was get him to the nearest airport for a single-engine landing.

Now, airline pilots do not like to fly in T-boomers because they are DANGEROUS! Turbulence, microbursts, etc. There have probably been more crashes in this sort of weather (though I don't have the statistics handy). So pointing them AT A THUNDERSTORM is bad, bad stuff. It is kind of like watching a car spin out ahead on the freeway, and steering into it. There is a reason we ground-stop traffic when weather is crappy: TO KEEP PEOPLE ALIVE!

Sorry about the rant, but stupidity is rampant in this agency.

Anyway, as usual, if you have a question, please email me at:

controllerx@gmail.com